A shocking new Netflix documentary has laid bare the full, horrifying extent of the abuse inflicted by family vlogger Ruby Franke on her children, detailing the pivotal and sinister role played by family counsellor Jodi Hildebrandt.
The Descent into Darkness
Ruby Franke, 43, rose to online fame by documenting her family's life with her six children and then-husband Kevin Franke on the YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which she started in 2015. Her world shifted dramatically in 2019 when she met therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, 56, through their shared Mormon church community. Hildebrandt, a powerful figure in the church and founder of a life coaching business, quickly became Franke's close friend and constant presence.
Warning signs had already appeared in Franke's content, where she shared controversial punishment methods. This included forcing her children to do physical exercise as discipline and, in one instance, refusing to take a forgotten lunch to her six-year-old daughter. In 2020, child protective services were called after viewers petitioned over revelations that her teenage son had been forced to sleep on a bean bag for seven months.
However, no one foresaw the nightmare to come. After Franke's marriage ended and the YouTube channel stopped in 2022, Hildebrandt encouraged Franke to move into her remote, £4 million mansion in Ivins, Utah, hundreds of miles from Franke's family home in Springville.
Unimaginable Cruelty Revealed
The true horror was uncovered on 30 August 2023, when Franke's 12-year-old son escaped and knocked on a neighbour's door, begging for food and water. The neighbour noticed the boy's emaciated state and severe wounds on his wrists and ankles, prompting a call to the police.
Officers discovered the boy's nine-year-old sister in a similarly starved condition inside Hildebrandt's home. Both Franke and Hildebrandt were swiftly arrested. Court documents later detailed months of torture inflicted on the two youngest children between May and August 2023.
The boy was forced to perform physical labour outside for weeks without shoes in blazing sunshine, suffering repeated burns with "blistered and sloughing skin". He was denied adequate food and water, and punished for drinking without permission. Ropes and handcuffs used by Hildebrandt to bind him caused deep injuries, tearing muscle and tissue in his wrists and ankles. These agonising wounds were then treated with cayenne pepper and honey and covered with duct tape.
His sister was subjected to similar forced labour outdoors without food, water, or shoes. Both children were repeatedly told they were "evil and possessed". Franke's diary entries, revealed in the documentary Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story, show she had become fixated on demons, labelling one child as "Satanic".
Aftermath and Sentencing
Following the arrest, all four minor children were placed in the custody of the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. Their father, Kevin Franke—who had been forced out of the family home over a year earlier—was eventually granted full custody after finalising his divorce.
In February 2024, both Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were sentenced to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison, where they are held in separate sections of the same facility. At her sentencing, Franke told the court, "For the past four years, I've chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion." Addressing her children, she added, "I believed dark was light and right was wrong."
The family continues to rebuild. Franke's eldest daughter, Shari, now 22, published a memoir in January 2025 titled The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom. Her son Chad, now 20, works as a realtor, married in 2025, and has spoken out to advocate for child protection. The identities of the four younger children remain protected and have never been publicly reported.
